How it all began for
Mandurah
By Harold Clay
Dot Hodgson decided she would do something
about starting a stamp club in Mandurah, so she put an advert in the
local paper to see what reaction she got. Six
of us responded and Dot, Bert Blackman, Harold Clay, Ken Darrington and
Mrs. Richter met on the 4th May 1977 at Dot’s house.
We agreed to form a club and decided
to start off with an annual fee of $1.00. Harold
Clay was voted President, Bert Blackman as Secretary and Dot Hodgson
as Treasurer. Mindful that we
had no constitution, it was decided to advertise locally for more members
and meet again on the 25th May.
14 people rolled up, of which 13 became
full members. During the meeting, we passed around copies
of the Fremantle club’s constitution for discussion at our next meeting
on 16th June.
At that June meeting, the constitution
was tackled, with an amended Fremantle constitution agreed upon. We had
our first A.G.M., with Harold Clay President, Bert Blackman Secretary,
Ken Wilding Vice President, Dot Hodgson Treasurer and Steven White as
Junior Committee Representative. Sales
of stamps and some sales by tender lots realised $1.63 commission for
the Club. Bert had contacted the Medical Centre and we
agreed to hold future meetings there, on the 3rd Friday of each month
(the only night available).
At the first AGM, the Presidency was
changed according to the constitution and Ken Wilding took the hot seat,
with Malcolm Woods as Vice President, Harold Clay as Exchange Superintendent,
and David Woods as Junior Representative. Committee
members were J Emmott, Miss V Emmott and Leslie Petrie. Ross Duberal made
his first visit to the club that night, talking about the history of
Post Offices in WA (Mandurah Post Office opened on 1st April 1846).
During that first year, we had an exhibition
on Saturday 1st October, attended workshops in Perth for judging, had
representation at WAPC meetings, started a junior stamp club, became
members of the WAPC, complained to Australia Post regarding heavy postmarking
of mail, held a competition for local schools on a stamp design by agreement
by two local principals for national Stamp week in September. At the end of our first year, our membership
had increased to 29.
During the next year, 1978, we commenced
incorporation of the Club. At
the 2nd
A.G.M., Harold Clay swapped roles with
Ken Wilding, Leslie Petrie became Vice President, whilst the other committee
members retained the positions that they held the previous year. Thus, the committee comprised Mrs. A Bali,
Mrs. W Blackman, Mrs. E Newman, Mrs. V Philpot & Mrs. Stout. By now we had 54 members on the books and a
credit balance of $275.53.
Arrangements were well under way for
our second competition for National StampWeek in
October. Alcoa helped with the
cost of the perpetual trophy for club competitions, first winner being
Clive Petrie with his New
Zealand collection. Gordon Darge also made the journey down to Mandurah to display New Zealand material.
At a workshop in Perth on “Mounting
Stamp Displays”, the first stamp display stand was made by Harold Clay. The Club also went on its first litter drive
with the Council (to earn additional funds for the club).
Agreements were reached with some local
schools to start stamp clubs at the schools.
The school competition that year was
a tremendous success, with 1200 entries !
